For the First Time
by GlimpseTheMoon
Summary: The story of my high school band and the first time we made sweepstakes in over a decade. This is the turning point; this is the start of the Purple Pride's comeback.


I first wrote about this when I got home from UIL competition this year, and so it is probably prudent to do a little explaining first in order for you to fully appreciate what went down that night.

In the past decade or so, the band program in Angleton, Texas has really gone downhill. Our varsity bands made twos and threes at contest; our jv bands didn't even go. For over ten years, we had not made Sweepstakes, and for every year I was in band, at least one teacher would quit.

Things came to a bit of a head my eigth grade year. Everyone had had about all they could take. All of our band teachers except the percussion teacher, Mr. Fricker, who had just gotten back from serving in the military, either moved to other schools or retired. That left the school board with three empty spots, including that of head band director, which was filled by Nathan Carter. This was absolutely the best thing that could've happened to us.

In these past two years, we have all worked, starting with Mr. Carter, extremely hard to turn our band program into what we truly want it to be. It has not been easy- it is something akin to starting to run- the progress is excruciatingly slow at first. You can't take things mile by mile; you have to take them step by step, and it is only a long ways down the road that you will start to see the progress you have made.

It has been an amazing past two years- crazy at times, scary at times, terrible at times, tiring and boring and exasperating at times, and in a few moments, heartbreaking. But tonight all of that culminated into a single moment, the moment when the distance we had run finally became something visible and even tangible to us.

So without farther ado, I write.

Tonight we are truly the Purple Pride. I knew this beyond a shadow of a doubt when Mr. Carter first came onto the bus, and he didn't have to say anything to let us know, because we could see it in his smile and the way he moved, and his eyes, which were shining so bright you could see it a mile away.

He didn't say anything, just grabbed some papers from the seat and headed back outside, but what I had just seen left me in stunned silence. I knew we had done well, but this- this was looking to be more than any of us would've imagined.

Eventually Carter called off the bus , and we stood outside outside, crowded around him,cooking on the pavement as he went on about how scores don't really matter and all that sort of stuff band directors say all the time, especially when you haven't done well. Looking back on it, I can see he was having a great time pulling our legs like that; I don't see how he managed to keep a straight face.

Apparently most of the band actually fell for all that,after all it is what we're used to, as horrible as that sounds, but a few of us, such as Nikki and I, could see the truth from the beginning. Even if Carter was managing a straight face, there was nothing he could do about his eyes; you could feel the emotion and joy, and mainly, the pride the second you looked into them, so when Mr. Wilde came running up with a box, I knew for sure what was in it; I was already celebrating as he handed it to Carter and the two of them tore it open, as excited as little boys on Christmas morning, before Carter pulled it out and turned to face us, crowing, "We made SWEEPSTAKES!" He had dropped his serious band director face and was just a kid as one of us, gleeful, ecstatic, the joy and excitement, and of course, the roaring pride now written with exclamation marks through every line of his smile and movements, and we were just like him; it was incredible. We were jumping up and down and screaming and cheering, and even crying, and the pride, it was showing in every line of our bodies, and of course our eyes; they were all shining with it now- this pride in this battle we had fought- this battle we had won, and the truth that this was the turning point for us; we were making a comeback now. So many times I had heard all that we had been through, this band, used as an excuse, but now, that was over, because of us- US! And it was, truly, the best feeling in the world.

It bears repeating- tonight we are truly,

THE PURPLE PRIDE


End file.
